U.S. earmarks $1B for 'offensive cyber operations' despite broader efforts to slash cybersecurity spending

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Someone might be taking "the best defense is a good offense" a little too seriously. Despite the Trump administration's efforts to reduce U.S. government spending via mass layoffs, budget cuts, and whatever efficiency gains can be afforded by vibe coded services made by cybercriminals who can't legally drink alcohol, the contentious "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" provides for $1 billion in funding to "offensive cyber operations."

TechCrunch reported Monday that H.R. 1—a bill so sprawling that Congress.gov warns that attempting to load it with XML/HTML "may take several minutes or possibly cause your browser to become unresponsive"—is vague about how this $1 billion will be spent. All we know is "that the money will go toward enhancing and improving the capabilities of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command" and is meant to be spent over the course of four years.

So it tracks for the Trump administration to engage in some tit-for-tat on the cyber front. The question is what happens when China's activity increases in response—especially since funding for defensive cyber efforts has been cut.

Obviously there are much higher stakes when it comes to cyber operations than there are in any football game. But that's exactly why this is cause for concern. It can be entertaining to watch the Bengals lose despite Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins being incredible offensive players. It's not entertaining at all to further endanger critical infrastructure, innocent people, and American businesses over a personal feud.

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Nathaniel Mott
Freelance News & Features Writer

Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.

  • 93QSD5
    || TechCrunch reported Monday that H.R. 1—a bill so sprawling that Congress.gov warns that attempting to load it with XML/HTML "may take several minutes or possibly cause your browser to become unresponsive"

    Incompetence knows no boundaries, yet this admin keeps pushing them...
    Reply
  • PedroMDK
    93QSD5 said:
    || TechCrunch reported Monday that H.R. 1—a bill so sprawling that Congress.gov warns that attempting to load it with XML/HTML "may take several minutes or possibly cause your browser to become unresponsive"

    Incompetence knows no boundaries, yet this admin keeps pushing them...
    Political bias on display
    Reply
  • 93QSD5
    PedroMDK said:
    Political bias on display
    I judge entities based on their words and actions.

    How can anyone not be biased at this point...
    Reply